TRENTON >> Mercer County inmate Ed “NJ Weedman” Forchion will continue being locked up without bail as he awaits trial on witness tampering charges.

A state judge last Friday issued a 15-page written opinion denying Forchion the opportunity to reopen his detention hearing and keeping the marijuana legalization activist behind bars.

“Defendant is attempting to transform a detention hearing into a mini-trial, which has been prohibited by the (New Jersey) Supreme Court,” Mercer County Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi said in denying Forchion’s motion.

Forchion, 53, who calls himself “Political Prisoner #420,” has been jailed without bail on witness tampering charges since his high-profile arrest on March 3. The witness intimidation charges are connected to an active drug case from 2016.

Advertisement

Trenton Police arrested Forchion on April 27, 2016, charging him with possession of more than 50 grams of marijuana with intent to distribute. The arrest occurred during a police operation in which the Mercer County Narcotics Task Force raided Forchion’s East State Street businesses, which included a restaurant, religious sanctuary and tobacco shop, and officers allegedly seized more than $19,000 in marijuana. A witness cooperating as a confidential informant helped police build that drug case against Forchion.

After posting bail in the drug case, Forchion took active steps to learn the identity of the cooperating witness. Prosecutors said Forchion intimidated that witness by publishing a myriad of sensitive information about the informant on social media.

Forchion has a lengthy rap sheet and four active criminal cases before the Mercer County Superior Court comprising two drug cases, a cyber harassment case, and the witness intimidation case. Due to his legal troubles and continued status as a Mercer County inmate on pretrial detention, Forchion has closed his NJ Weedman’s Joint restaurant and sanctuary on East State Street in Trenton.

A grand jury on Feb. 28 handed up a direct indictment charging Forchion with one count of second-degree witness tampering and one count of third-degree witness tampering.

Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw ordered NJ Weedman to pretrial detention on March 7. The self-described peaceful pothead challenged that order and lost his appeal on April 18 when state Appellate Division Judges Jack Sabatino and Heidi Willis Currier affirmed Warshaw’s opinion.

Warshaw found by “clear and convincing evidence” that Forchion should be detained pretrial without bail on the grounds that releasing him from jail would do nothing to reasonably assure the protection of public safety. The judge also suggested that Forchion was at risk for obstructing or attempting to obstruct the criminal justice process if granted pretrial release.

Forchion on April 25 filed a motion asking the Appellate Division to reconsider its order, and Sabatino denied that motion without prejudice on April 27, saying that the proper remedy for Forchion was to move to reopen his detention hearing. Sabatino said Forchion is allowed to move to reopen his detention hearing based on any “material information” contained within the state’s discovery file of evidence.

As such, the marijuana activist represented himself pro se and delivered oral arguments before Judge Massi on July 12 and Aug. 1 in an attempt to persuade the judge to grant him a new or reopened detention hearing.

A reopened detention hearing would have given Forchion another chance to argue for release and would have given the state another chance to argue its position that NJ Weedman is too dangerous to be released on any condition, but Massi last Friday denied Forchion’s motion to reopen the detention hearing.

“Defendant fails to point to any specific piece of evidence contained within the discovery he received that has material effect on the detention determination,” Massi said in his 15-page opinion, which The Trentonian obtained through a court public records request. “This fails to comport with both Judge Sabatino’s order and R. 3:4A (b) (3), which require material information to be presented.”

Massi was citing the specific court rule that specifies when a detention hearing may be reopened. He determined that Forchion had failed to meet the requirements of the rule.

Forchion in his defense had submitted four videos that he argued were material in nature, but Massi in his opinion said he had reviewed those videos and determined they lacked materiality in the motion. Massi further determined the videos go toward the probable cause determination and said a grand jury has already found probable cause for Forchion’s arrest by indicting him on witness tampering charges.

Forchion in his oral arguments said he never had any intent to witness tamper and blamed his legal troubles on his ex-lawyer Edward Heyburn. Massi’s written opinion cited case law that a defendant cannot claim ineffective assistance of counsel when he participates or acquiesces in his attorney’s allegedly illegal or unethical conduct.

The defense attorney Heyburn filed a civil action lawsuit against Forchion on July 26, accusing the marijuana legalization activist of making false and defamatory statements.

Forchion in his oral arguments also suggested that his social media conduct from 2016 and early 2017 was legally or constitutionally protected, but Massi said that is an issue for a jury to decide at trial.

The marijuana activist also argued he needed to be temporarily released from the Mercer County Correction Center to prepare for his pro se defense, but Massi shot that argument down in his opinion, saying, “Defendant has failed to provide a compelling reason to allow his temporary release.”

Forchion has the right to appeal Massi’s order.

“I look forward to my future jurors using jury nullification to end this political persecution prosecution,” Forchion said Wednesday in a statement. “I hope my jurors stop this legal lynching.”

About the Author

Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman has been working as a professional journalist since graduating from Temple University in 2007. Prior to his current stint at The Trentonian, Abdur-Rahman worked at The Philadelphia Inquirer and wrote a self-published memoir about his 12-month experience of living in Australia on a spouse visa. Reach the author at sulaiman@trentonian.com
or follow Sulaiman on Twitter: @sabdurr.